Shuttle Rolls To Pad Under Tight Security

The Second Front Page

Nasa Said It Likely Would Black Out Launch Times And Other Information For Future Shuttle Liftoffs.

November 1, 2001|By Michael Cabbage, Sentinel space editor

CAPE CANAVERAL -- Shuttle Endeavour rolled out to the launch pad Wednesday amid an unprecedented show of force in the skies above Kennedy Space Center.

Two F-15 fighter jets briefly flew shotgun as the orbiter made the four-mile trek from KSC's Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B atop a mammoth transport crawler. Endeavour is scheduled to lift off Nov. 29 on an 11-day crew-exchange flight to the international space station.

The fighter patrol was the most visible sign of tougher new security measures at the Cape in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. While declining to give specifics, military officials acknowledged they have beefed up air, ground and sea defenses.

"The 45th Space Wing is going to take all reasonable measures at its disposal to ensure that America's national space assets -- whether it be rockets at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station or the shuttle over here [at KSC] -- are kept as safe as possible from any security threat," said Air Force Maj. Michael Rein, a spokesman for Patrick Air Force Base's 45th Space Wing. "Right now, we think we're doing that."

Heightened security could mean a blackout of shuttle flight information readily available to the public in recent years. NASA managers are considering new policies to conceal the precise times of shuttle launches and landings until moments beforehand.

"Those plans are being formulated this week," KSC spokesman Bruce Buckingham said. "There will be some changes."

Among the likely changes:

Launch times and windows no longer will be publicized.

Countdown clocks visible to the public won't be activated until the T-minus nine-minute mark.

Commentary on NASA Television's launch broadcast will be greatly curtailed.

Countdown milestones such as the shuttle's fueling and the crew's departure for the launch pad won't be announced or televised until well after they have happened.

The proposed regulations are similar to those used during classified military missions aboard the shuttle in the 1980s and early 1990s. According to KSC's Office of Public Affairs, the last time countdown information was restricted was before the Nov. 24, 1991, launch of a missile-warning satellite aboard Atlantis.

"We're not providing any unnecessary details," Buckingham said. "We don't want to set ourselves up as a target."